So you messed up. Again.

What is the deal? You try so hard. You really want to do right all the time. You want to be a light in your world. You want to be used. You want people to see Christ in everything you do…..So why do you keep messing up?

Short answer? You are human.

Yup, it’s true. You are a human being with a sin nature, with faulty logic, and a “desperately wicked” heart. Wait, so is that the bad news or the good news?

Well, I guess it’s the bad news, but the good news is that you’re not alone because everyone who has ever lived has also been…. yep, you guessed it, human.

Think of all the “mess-ups” in the Bible. All the people who made mistakes- Noah, Abraham, Moses, King David, Even the Apostle Paul said, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” [Romans 7:15] Being a human is frustrating for all of us.

So it happens. We mess up. What happens now?

1. Repent.

Are you sorry? Good. That means you’re really a child of God :] So tell God. Tell Him you are sorry- sorry for doing the very thing that nailed His Son to cross and took His life. Take a good long look at your sin and think about how much it hurts the very God you claim to love and serve and how it drives a wedge in your relationship with Him. Talk to God about a plan you have for turning from this sin… and not going back again. Take real action to rid your life of this sin once and for all, and ask God to help you do it.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

2. Accept forgiveness.

Know that when we repent, our sins are gone. How good is the grace of God? Let’s just say there is a reason they call it “amazing grace.” It is unending; it is new everyday; it is really unbelievable, but believe it. God is willing and able to forgive any and all sin when we come to him and confess and repent. He is so good to us, and our sin is as good as gone.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12

3. Get up!

What are you sitting there for? You’ve got a job to do. You have been called for a purpose. Don’t forget it. Not one if us humans have a right to sit in despair when there is so much work to do. Remember all that we are called to. Remember that we can do all things through Christ. Remember that… “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. ” Romans 8:37

Just because you made a mistake doesn’t mean you are one. God still has a plan for your life, and you can ALWAYS still be used if you surrender your heart to Him. It is never too late to trade your sins for his righteousness and cultivate a heart after Christ’s.

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Proverbs 24:16

4. Praise God.

Thank God for everything he has done for us. He came down to become a human, to walk among us, to feel everything we felt. He took every last one of our sins before we ever thought of committing them and buried them in the grave, and we can have new life through His resurrection.

So get up! We have a big, powerful, good God who is bigger than your mistakes. Praise Him that He can always overcome if we give our lives completely to Him. You may have made a mistake, but you are not one. He loves you and is willing to use anyone who makes themselves usable.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:1-4